Wired tells of organizational upheaval at Gannett, the publisher of USA Today as well as 90 other American daily newspapers with combined daily paid circulation of approximately 7.3 million.
According to internal documents provided to Wired News and interviews with key executives, Gannett will begin crowdsourcing many of its newsgathering functions.
Starting Friday, Gannett newsrooms were rechristened “information centers,” and instead of being organized into separate metro, state or sports departments, staff will now work within one of seven desks with names like “data,” “digital” and “community conversation.”
The initiative emphasizes four goals: Prioritize local news over national news; publish more user-generated content; become 24-7 news operations, in which the newspapers do less and the websites do much more; and finally, use crowdsourcing methods to put readers to work as watchdogs, whistle-blowers and researchers in large, investigative features.
Founded by Frank E. Gannett and associates in 1906, Gannett recorded $7.6 billion in operating revenue in 2005.
